Dhamra Port and Turtles

PRESS NOTE

THE DHAMRA PORT PROJECT – A STATUS NOTE

Dhmra is one of the most ancient ports in the eastern coast which continued to function till after the British rule when it fell into disuse except for fishing purposes. The Government of Orissa conceived a plan in early nineties to develop it into a modern deep port to cater to the needs of the mineral rich hinterland of Orissa, Jharkhand and West Bengal. The nature of cargo of this hinterland called for large size vessels, and consequently deep draft ports for which the existing ports of Haldia and Paradip proved inadequate. A feasibility study was undertaken which finally led to the formation of Dhamra Port Company Limited to undertake the development of the port on a Build, Own, Operate, Share and Transfer (BOOST) basis. Initially, a joint venture of L&T & two foreign companies, DPCL is now a 50:50 joint venture of L&T and Tata Steel.

Situated north of river Dhamra at a place called Doshinga, the Dhamra port has been conceived as a deep draft port which can accommodate super cape size vessels. The project includes construction of a 62 km rail link between Dhamra and Bhadrak on the Howrah – Chennai main line and a jetty of 700 meter in the first phase with fully mechanized facilities for loading and unloading. The project is estimated to cost Rs.2463 crore in the first phase, and more than 25% of the work has already been completed. The port is scheduled to become operational by April 2010. A number of steel plants apart from Tata Steel coming up and planned in the three states of Orissa, Jharkhand and West Bengal have evinced interest to use the port, especially for import of coking coal and limestone and export of finished steel..

The project has received all statutory clearances including the environment clearance from the Government of India and NOC from the Pollution Control Board of the state government. The clearance had been challenged before the National Environment Appellate Authority on certain grounds including its effect on olive ridley turtles and the NEAA after a visit to the site has upheld the clearance with a clear finding that the place being muddy and silty is unsuitable for turtle nesting.

The olive ridley turtles come in hundreds of thousands to nest along the coast of Orissa. Studies undertaken by Wildlife Institute of India divide the Orissa coast into eight sectors and suggest that turtles nest along all the seven sectors south of river Dhamra either sporadically or en mass, with Gahirmatha, Devi and Rushikulya serving as mass nesting beaches. The only sector of the Orissa coast which is not visited by turtles for nesting is the northern most stretch of Orissa coast which is north of river Dhamra This is because the turtles look for sandy beaches where they can dig holes to hide the eggs whereas the coast north of river Dhamra is muddy and silty. The proposed port is situated in this sector, or in other words, the only sector of Orissa coast which is not visited by turtles. The above was considered by the Empowered Committee which gave the clearance and confirmed by the Appellate Authority which visited the site to verify the truth.

This has however not deterred environmental groups including Greenpeace from raising voices of concern and the port developers have always heeded such voices with open mind. The developers at one stage invited them to undertake further study at the former’s cost and even withheld construction for one full season to facilitate such study. The ones that did agree to undertake such study subsequently backed out, presumably under pressure of those who do not want the truth to be revealed so that the campaign against the project can continue. The developers on their own have invited IUCN, world’s premier scientific body for conservation of wildlife to help the developers assess the situation, identify potential areas of possible effect and take adequate precautions. The IUCN have identified such areas and have been helping the port to adopt appropriate dredging methods and lighting manuals. The port authorities with IUCN have also undertaken an awareness campaign amongst fishermen for using TEDs in fishing nets which is the real cause of large scale turtle mortality in the state.

The port developers fail to understand the recently intensified campaign of Greenpeace. The Greenpeace were invited for discussion at Mumbai in January last when they had summarized in their own words their concerns into seven points. The DPCL had in a detailed reply answered these points. A perusal of the Greenpeace concerns and DPCL replies which can be seen at the DPCL website www.dhamraport.com would suggest that there is no unresolved issue which would justify such a belligerent campaign with acrimonious attack on personalities. A lot of disinformation in the form of untruths and half truths are being systematically circulated through the internet to make bloggers and e-group members sign petitions at the click of a button which do not reflect their informed opinion. A large number of these reach us through the host address (i.e. Greenpeace)only without the mail address of the sender so that we cannot directly reply to them and let them know the truth. DPCL would like to make it be known that it is fully aware of and sensitive to its social and environmental responsibilities and would continue to undertake the task of building the public infrastructure it has taken upon itself in the best spirit of sustainable development.

also check link

http://cms.iucn.org/about/union/secretariat/offices/asia/asia_where_work/india_programme_office/dhamra_port/index.cfm